Exploring the microfoundations of hybridity: A judgment-based approach

Dorobat, Carmen-Elena ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3343-6786, McCaffrey, Matthew and Topan, Mihai Vladimir (2024) Exploring the microfoundations of hybridity: A judgment-based approach. Journal of Business Venturing, 39 (4). 106406. ISSN 0883-9026

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Abstract

We explore the concept of organizational hybridity from the perspective of the Judgment-Based Approach to entrepreneurship (JBA). The JBA provides much-needed microfoundations for hybridity in the form of a more nuanced, action-based view of the market mechanism in shaping enterprises. Rather than a problem of conflicting logics at the organizational level, hybridity is redefined as entrepreneurial judgment at the individual level about combinations of monetary and psychic profit. Viewed this way, hybridity is a universal characteristic of real-world enterprises rather than a defining feature of a specific subset of them. This approach thus ultimately reshapes our understanding of hybridity and suggests an alternative view that is less conflictual and insular, and more conciliatory and integrated. It also sheds light on various problems facing such enterprises, including strategy formation, practical wisdom, normative pressures, mission drift, entrepreneurial groups, and public policy.